Christian singer Marie Miller provides 'holy leisure'

MARY C. TILLOTSON|
Catholic Herald

10/15/14

Marie Miller, a Christian pop singer, has had songs on top Christian and contemporary radio networks, and plays about eight shows a month across the U.S.

Her songs have been on top Christian and contemporary radio
network lists. She's played for crowds of 5,000 people,
recorded two CDs and had a song featured in a movie.
Eucharistic adoration is on her short list of non-music
activities.

The third of 10 children, Marie Miller got her start at an
early age. She always enjoyed singing, and at age 5 or 6,
people began noticing that she had a "unique, good voice,"
her father, Joe Miller, said. She began playing mandolin when
she was 11, and shortly after began playing in a family band
with her father and sister, Justina. Before long, her mother,
Roxanne, joined, and together they sang and played acoustic
string instruments at church events, fairs, festivals and at
Rappahannock Cellars, which the Miller family partly owns.

When Marie was 15, Justina began attending college out of
town and wasn't able to play with the band anymore. Marie had
written several songs and recorded them in a Christian pop
style, with acoustic guitar, mandolin, electric keyboard and
drum. She sent the recording to a producer in Nashville who
had recorded many female Christian pop singers.

"We sent him our homemade CD, and he contacted us and was
really interested in Marie," Joe said. "He was asking a lot
of questions. Did she really write these songs? Is that
really her singing? Yes, yes, that's her, yeah, she wrote it.
Then, he said, 'Wow. I don't normally work with independent
artists; I usually only work with record labels, but I would
make an exception in this case.'"

Marie recorded some songs and signed with Curb Records. Six
months later, she had songs on Christian radio. Soon she
moved into secular pop with her song, "You're Not Alone."

"One thing my parents made me do is practice a lot. Practice
and pray," she said. Aspiring musicians should "love music
for itself and (not) think about making money."

She plays about eight shows per month, including 10 in
October this year. She has played in nearly all 50 states at
a variety of venues, from small parish events to South By
Southwest, an annual film and music festival in Austin,
Texas. She travels to Nashville to record so often that she
keeps an apartment there, though her home is near Front
Royal.

It's a different experience playing at Catholic and secular
events, she said, but she doesn't prefer one over the other.
"They're both so great," she said.

Secular events, she said, are a way to provide a "holy
leisure" to the audience, mostly college students and young
adults. Catholic events are more of a ministry, and she said
she's fed spiritually by playing at these events.

"It's humbling to be leading a group in ministry. Who am I to
be leading? I say, God works through brats," - referring to
St. Thérèse of Lisieux, who was a temperamental
child - "and it's humbling that they'd ask me."

At South By Southwest last year, someone came to her after
the show and said she and the musicians playing with her
seemed so happy.

"It seems cliched," she said. "That's our mission, to have
the joy of the Gospel in our faces. It's not Praise and
Worship (music), but Catholicism is interwoven in the songs
about friendship and romance."

"The songs she's writing right now, they're commentaries on
people and life from the perspective of a young Christian
woman," Joe said. "She's not trying to write a song for
Christian audiences. She'll be inspired by a person or a
situation, and she'll write about it from her perspective,
which happens to be a faith-filled perspective."

Miller said she hopes to inspire young people to a life of
joy.

"God is calling us to a great adventure," she said. "Don't
settle for a mediocre life. The Christian life is the
exciting life that hearts dream and long for. Don't settle,
because you're made for a great life."